We need to talk about Kanye
Activist and writer Nimco Ali says we can’t ignore the rapper’s actions this time
KANYE WEST IS back at it again. During a surprise fashion show in Paris for his line Yeezy, West and conservative Black provocateur Candace Owens wore T-shirts emblazoned with ‘White Lives Matter’. Some of the models also walked the runway in the T-shirts bearing the slogan, which the Anti-defamation League identifies as a hateful phrase used by white supremacists. West then proceeded to post ‘Black Lives Matter was a scam’ on his Instagram. It was the latest in a string of troubling incidents from the rapper and designer, who has previously said a centuries-long history of slavery ‘sounds like a choice’.
So was this finally West’s ‘cancellation’ moment, some asked? I doubt it. As columnist Karen Attiah wrote in The Washington Post, ‘Especially in our MAGA era, anti-blackness and misogyny are profitable in America, especially if you’re a rich and famous man of any colour. (so much for cancel culture, right?) West will get the publicity, the outrage clicks, a spot in the news cycle. Stores will carry his designs. He will be invited to the boardrooms of the fashion world and, when he releases his music, he will be platformed. People still line up to buy Yeezys. He’ll still get “that paper,” no matter how low he stoops.’
What is also true and still more scary is how West’s views will be used to do more to those who have suffered for centuries. After his fashion week stunt got the backlash he knew it would, West took to his social media to attack those who criticised him with the anti-semitic trope that a secret cabal of Jewish people is conspiring to control the world’s media, governments and banks. When his Instagram was restricted as a result of this, he went on to Twitter to say that he was ‘going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE’. The Jewish Federations of North America warned afterwards that the rise in anti-semitic rhetoric was ‘directly linked to the rise in anti-semitic violence’.
Anti-semitism is real. Anti-blackness is real. Words matter. Words are what start unwarranted hate towards people. As a Black woman who has lived through civil war, in Somalia, I have seen firsthand how words are used to dehumanise and then legitimise murder. They allow those who hate us to other us, and they will use people who look like us to do their work. That is what West is doing.
In response, some have questioned his state of mind. I know a lot of people, including me, who struggle with our mental health but, frankly, are not pricks. Yes, I believe West is sick – the profiting-off-the-pain-of-others kind of sick. He appears to have zero interest in the impact his actions will have on the lives of others. And while I wish we could just opt out of his bullshit – just ignore him, as others suggest – sadly we can’t while his toxic narcissism is fuelling the erosion of the basic human rights of so many.
He, for his part, seems not to care, or think any of this will impact him, and he may be right that it will not hurt him personally. But his words and actions will make life harder and more unsafe for his children and for generations to come. That is why we have to take action against West, not by excusing him, but by exposing him. I, for one, will be calling him a dickhead every chance I get. We don’t need to cancel him, but challenge him
– and stop buying his shit.